“Tom?” June cleared her throat again. “No.” She shook her head and wiped her mouth on a napkin. “I don’t believe it.”
Her brows knit hard.
No, it just didn’t fit.June’s mind refused to comprehend that revelation. “Maybe Sienna was lying to try to protect her mother.” She shook her head again. “I don’t believe Tom would do that.”
“I can’t believe it either,” Holt agreed. “But that’s what Sienna told Rad. I still have to investigate it on the quiet.”
“No, I’m sorry.” June put the napkin on the table and held up her hand. “Tom wouldn’t even keep that dollar bill he found at the beach that summer when we were kids,” she said. “He turned it in at the station because he said it wasn’t his.”
“I know.” Holt let out a long breath.
“No.” June shook her head. “I’m not saying he’s perfect. I’m not saying there couldn’t be things we don’t know about him.” She swallowed, and guilt clutched at her stomach, thinking about her own secret. “Everyone has secrets and parts of their life they don’t share.” Her eyes met Holt’s again. “But hiding a safe full of jewels and cash during a divorce is one thing. Being some cat burglar who stole your family’s set years ago is another.”
“I know,” Holt said again, quieter this time. “I’ve been turning it over in my head, and I feel exactly the same way you do.”
“I can’t see him as a cat burglar either,” June stated. “While he has an easy stride and I’ve no doubt he’s well trained, Tom wasalways more of a football player than a gymnast or stealth type person.”
“Some cat burglars steal things in plain sight,” Holt pointed out. “You know, like magicians or pickpockets. They’re deft at lifting objects without anyone realizing. It’s all an illusion, sleight of hand, and perplexing the audience with what’s happening in this hand while the other hand takes something.”
“Maybe Sienna was lying,” June repeated. “She’s covering for her mother. Let’s face it, Victoria would be able to point fingers at Tom and get even more from the divorce if she found out about a hidden fortune.” She knew she was grasping at straws. Trying to make up a scenario as June couldn’t picture Tom stealing. Not just that, this would absolutely destroy Lucy. Her eyes widened. “I’d start looking into Victoria first.” Her eyes hardened with resolve. “She’s jealous and angry that Lucy and Tom have finally found their way back together. In fact, I heard her threaten Lucy just before Lacey’s accident. This would be the perfect revenge for Victoria.”
“June, I’ve been through all the excuses I can muster in my mind,” Holt assured her. “Trust me, I don’t want this to be Tom any more than you do. The man and I have been best friends since we learned to walk.”
“Then we need to prove Sienna is wrong!” June said stubbornly. “Maybe she was given misinformation.” Her eyes widened. “We need to bring her in and question her about it.” Her finger tapped the table. “Questions like, when were you given this safe of treasures? Who exactly gave it to you? What were you told to do with it? Have items been added to it over the period of time you’ve been keeping it? If so, who has been giving you the items to store in the safe? Why on earth, if you were asked to hide the safe and its items, would you be wearing one of the items in it?”
She sat back and once again locked eyes with Holt, whose brows had risen, and a soft smile curved his lips.
“I hope you can remember all those questions.” He teased lightly. “They’re good questions.”
June gave a soft snort at him, trying to temper down the steam that was starting to boil over inside her.
“I’ve got a good memory,” she reminded him while making a mental note to actually jot the questions down.
“You know that we can’t bring her in at the moment?” Holt pointed out. “She swore Rad to secrecy about this, and he needs to keep investigating it. If we do bring it in, it will spook her, and she could withdraw the case.”
“We can still bring her in about the bracelet,” June said. “We did find it at a crime scene, and it has been identified as hers.”
“I did think about that,” Holt admitted. “I was going to, until Rad told me about her break-in. I’d rather find out about all the jewels and items in the safe as well as who stole them right now.” He picked up the wine glass and sat back with it. “As that could lead us to who dropped it or planted the bracelet in Teacups.”
They fell into silence after that, but it was no longer the comfortable sort.
Of course, Holt was right, and June knew it, although she hated to admit it, he sometimes kept a level head when she got too emotionally involved in a case. This is one of the reasons she didn’t go into law enforcement. June had thought about it. She loved solving cases and helping people. But her passionate nature would’ve been her undoing in that job. June wantedanswers, and she knew there was a bigger picture here with the safe, but Sienna had all but accused Tom of being a cat burglar.
Okay, there could be other ways he could’ve come into possession of the jewelry set. Maybe one of the reasons the jewels never appeared anywhere on the market or with a collector was that the actual cat burglar sold them quietly to the Morrison family. Maybe Tom or his parents didn’t even know who the jewels belonged to. Sure, the Cat Burglar would’ve known the jewels weren’t the original and could’ve sold them to the Morrisons as a copy of the Strand jewels. Her eyes widened, and she pulled out her notepad and pen from her purse, jotting down her thoughts.
“What are you thinking?” Holt asked, slightly amused that she still had the habit of doing that.
As June jotted down her thoughts, she told Holt about them.
“That’s a good and plausible theory,” Holt told her. “One worth keeping in our mind. But the only flaw in it is, why didn’t they ever show the jewelry?”
“Well, didn’t Sienna just tell Rad that she was hiding the treasures for her father?” June pointed out. “When the jewels went missing, Tom and Victoria were already engaged. Your mother and your uncle also never went public with the jewels going missing. Why would Tom think anything sinister about buying a very good copy of the set? Maybe he did it thinking that one day he’d actually be able to give it to the woman he really loved. Or he kept them hidden, waiting for Victoria to prove that she wasn’t just after the Morrison fortune to bail her crooked father out.”
“My first thought when my mother mentioned a cat burglar…” Holt stopped and put the glass back on the table, leaning in again and lowering his voice, “—was Victoria’s father. Look what the man did to Victoria’s mother’s family fortune, and then to try to replenish, he organized that elaborate pyramid scheme, which collapsed her mother’s family company altogether.”
“You think Victoria’s father was the cat burglar?” June realized as she leaned closer once again, her mind ticking over with possibilities. “That would actually make a lot of sense and be worth looking into.”
“He did travel a lot,” Holt added. “His photo and trophies for gymnastics, track, and shooting are also still displayed at the Sandpiper Shores high school.”
